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Community Chest

The Community Chest Fund will support activities which improve the lives of local residents. Those activities can be small scale or more ambitious but the maximum grant we can give is £2000.00 and will usually be less than this. We also expect that those seeking funds have or are in the process of applying to other funding bodies, we can advise you on other local funding pots of click the link here Funding opportunities list

We can accept ideas from individuals and organisations but we will want to know what outcomes you hope to achieve through this activity and what makes you think other people will want to take part.

We may ask you to come to an interview to talk about your application. It is normally a condition of accepting a grant that you are willing to offer up to 2 hours of support or mentoring to a future applicant. You will also need to ensure that you send us feedback including numbers of attendees etc and financial breakdown of spend using our monitoring form, at the middle and end of your project.

What is the Community Chest?

The Community Chest is a small grants fund. It is part of the Big Local programme.

Who is it for?

The Community Chest is for people living in the Wormholt and White City Big Local area. (This includes: White City Estate, Wormholt Estate, Batman Close, Cleverly Estate and White City Close) or organisations working in the area who want to provide a service or activity to local residents.

Who can apply to it?

Local residents or organisations based in the area or who guarantee to hold the event or activity in the area.

What will it pay for?

Anything which local people want to do which will improve the quality of life in the Big local area. So, it might pay for a group of residents to take their children to the seaside or to pay the hall hire and instructor fees for someone to teach yoga to a group of mums or to pay the hire costs of a studio for a group of older people to record a cd for example. You get the general idea.

You can apply for up to £2,000, which can pay for activities or items of equipment or hire of facilities.

How do we get it?

Make sure there are at least two of you who want to organise an activity etc

Download a copy of the application form or see Angela in the Big Local office, it might be worth discussing the application and activity before completing the application form

Work out how much you think your idea will cost and who you want to involve in doing it, putting this into a simple budget will help.

Take your completed form to the office or email it to Angela,

The application will then be assessed for shortlisting, those successful applications will be invited to come and discuss your idea with the panel. Those who are not put forward for interview will be given comprehensive feedback, and advice on improving their application, budget or plan ready for possible re-submission.

What then?

The panel will talk to you about your idea. They may make some suggestions. You will hear their decision quite soon after your meeting.

When will I get the money?

You will need to sign an agreement stating the funding will be used for the purpose you have applied, you will provide your bank details on the agreement to allow us to make payment within 10 – working days.

Depending on the size of the grant, you will normally be paid 50% at the start of the project and 50% at the mid-point review. The project (and all related expenditure) must be completed within one year of being awarded funding.

Do I have to do anything else?

We will ask you to provide us with feedback such as surveys and photos of your activity/event and send them to us. We will put the photos in a display so that other people can see what is happening in their neighbourhood and perhaps be inspired to organise something themselves.

You will also need to report back on the progress of your project at a mid-point review and at the end of your project. We will provide you with a monitoring form to complete for this purpose, failure to provide this may cause delay in releasing any further payments.

What if I have an idea but are worried about how to take it forward?

If you need any help with deciding how to organise your event, working out the costs, knowing how to tell people about it or filling in our registration form, just ask Angela for help.

Actually, I’d like to help make decisions about who gets the money

Brilliant! Let Angela know and we will have a chat to you about how to get involved with the assessment panel.